Zero's Gandalfr
by Funny Loaf
Summary: Gandalfr, the Shield of God, meant to protect its summoner from harm - a master of weaponries that would take on armies to protect its master. If Louise was destined to summon one, it would only befitting that her Gandalfr would be someone whom had been deemed a God, is a weapon master, and had took on armies alone... Another attempt with Mega Man Zero as Louise's familiar.
1. Chapter 1

Zero's Gandalfr

Summary: Gandalfr, the Shield of God, meant to protect its summoner from harm - a master of weaponries that would take on armies to protect its master. If Louise was destined to summon one, it would only befitting that her Gandalfr would be someone whom had been deemed a God, is a weapon master, and had took on armies alone... Another attempt with Mega Man Zero as Louise's familiar.

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters. I only own most of the scenarios. A few things might be 'borrowed' from other fics, however. Here are the references so far: The Blade of the Void, Summoned Sergeant Chronicles, and I, X your Familiar (by far the best of the three crossovers). The summary was also 'borrowed' but I don't remember from which one…

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Chapter 1: It's Hurt; It's Dead; It's Aliiive - The Arrival of an Uncommon Commoner

"In the name of the great Five Pentagon Powers, I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, call upon the universe to grant me the strongest, the most beautiful legendary creature as my fateful servant!"

As the chant continues, the sunny day unexpectedly darkens. The sky seemed to be covered by a deep purple mist, and the crowd of students was frantic upon looking at the eerie sky all the while backing away from the summoner. Some students were screaming, "We're all gonna die," and ran for cover.

"Summon!" The girl with pink hair, black cloak, white blouse, and gray pleated skirt named Louise finished her spell. Her classmates reacted by running away from where her wand was pointing.

For a few second, nothing happened. The sky appeared to be clearing: a good sign. Seeing nothing had happened, the crowd breathed a sigh of relieve and walked back to their previous position, most of them laughing. Some among them joked, "Louise the Zero had struck again."

Frustrated over her failure yet again, Louise was ready to lash out at her classmates when a huge explosion occurred where she had just pointed her wand. The unlucky few caught in the blast were sent flying as a thick white smoke engulfed the courtyard. Lucky for them, the explosion was not very strong. Still, they would have a few scratches and bruises to content with.

"Whirlwind!" A strong gust of wind came forth and begins to clear the smoke away. Standing in the middle of the crowd was a middle age man in a black robe holding up a large wooden staff. "Is everyone alright?" the man asked calmly, addressing his students.

"Louise, are you trying to kill us all!"

"It's a miracle we survived."

"I knew this would happen."

The smoke soon cleared and everyone got back to their feet, none seemed seriously injured. Then a young woman with short blue hair pointed to a person laying face down on the epic center of the explosion. "Mr. Colbert, someone is hurt," said the young girl with very little emotion and pointed at the person. Everyone turned their gaze toward that unlucky individual.

Said the person on the ground was fairly tall, about six foot, and had long blond hair that covered the entire body and obscured 'her' face. It appeared 'she' was heavily wounded. Small pieces of red armor plating suffered from many cracks were attached to an equally torn black suit covered in soot. Burn marks were apparent throughout 'her' body along with many gashes. Dried blood stains covered all over 'her' body but no more blood was oozing out, indicating the injuries had happened a while ago.

Colbert immediately rushed to the casualty and tried to access the situation.

"I don't remember anyone looking like her. Who could she be?"

"It must be Louise familiar."

"No way. Seriously, I don't believe it."

"A commoner as a familiar? Ha, that got to be a first."

"She seems to be in bad shape."

"Ha, that is our Louise. Who would have thought she would summon a commoner as her familiar and then blow it up in her own explosion."

"Oh, the poor thing."

Meanwhile, Louise was standing meters away from her familiar, staring in disbelief. Not only was her 'strongest, the most beautiful legendary creature' turns out to be a commoner, but it appeared that her familiar was badly injured due to her own explosive spell. A part of her wanted to belief that this was all a dream, a nightmare that will end soon but a larger part of her knew that this was no dream.

Colbert kneeled beside the injured blond and tried to find a pulse through 'her' neck. After several tries, he confirms his fear: Low body temperature couple with no pulse, Louise's familiar was dead. _'She probably had been dead for some time. Even the blood is dry,'_ thought Colbert. It maybe harsh but he had to break the news, "I am sorry Miss Vallière, but she's dead."

Silence, then laughter erupted from the crowd.

"Haha, this is certainly a first."

"Louise, our familiar is meant to be our fateful servant through our life. What's the point of killing it before you even take a proper look?"

"Even if you don't want a commoner to be your familiar, killing it after you summoned it here is just too cruel."

"Murderer."

'_D-dead? M-murderer? T-this cannot be. This must be a mistake. I must be dreaming. That's right; it must be a nightmare I am having,'_ Louise was in shock and denial. Her knees have lost their strength, and she slid in a sitting position.

"It's not your fault, Miss Vallière," said Colbert. In trying to clear her name, Colbert explained, "Listen everyone, Miss Vallière did not kill anyone." Colbert pointed at the corpse and continued, "She was dead before she got here. Look, the blood on her had already dried. She must have died from her injuries a while ago."

Louise, after listening to Colbert's explanation, felt a little better. She had not killed anyone at least. She let loose a breath that she didn't know she was holding then observed her classmates reaction. Everyone looked back at the corpse and all was silent for a second. Then more laughter erupted.

"So that means Louise had summoned a corpse as her familiar?"

"Wow that is definitely a new record."

"What do you expect from our Louise the Zero?"

"Louise the Necromancer. Haha."

That made her mad. She was about to unleash her wrath upon her classmates but Mr. Colbert stepped in and defended her, "Silent! You should respect your classmate." Mr. Colbert glared at his students and tried to bring order.

While all the commotions were going on, the 'corpse' stirred followed by a few groans and then some coughs. Soon it got the attention of everyone, and they all looked back at the 'corpse'. They watched in silent and horror as the 'corpse' rise ever slowly just like one of those creepy zombie-corpse does.

Quite a number of students were shocked, especially the girls, and all of them have backed away hastily. Some even held their wands out defensively.

"Ahhh Mr. Colbert, i-iit-iiit's aliiive."

"Ahhh, it's a zo-zombie."

"No way, Louise the Necromancer was for real?"

The 'corpse', through great effort, slowly got itself into a kneeling position, panting and coughing all the while. Long blond hair fell all around it, obscuring its face.

Colbert was astonished and a bit concerned at the turn of event. He had checked pulse of the commoner several times and found none; the body temperature was low as well. The thought of Louise's familiar being a zombie crossed his mind. A closer look at the blond, however, eased his concerns. Zombies normally do not coughs nor pant like that. He decided to approached to the very injured blond slowly and see how 'she' was doing, "Hello Ms. are you feeling alright."

* * *

Zero woke up with a massive headache and a world of pain. His head felt like he had just played a game of 'Whack the Mole' with Omega and was hit multiple times. The rest of his body felt like it had been ran over by Fefnir's tank several dozens times. Getting into a kneeling position took almost all of his strength. In his disoriented state, he vaguely remembered his final battle with Weil. It had taken quite a toll on his body to take out the fusion between Weil and Ragnarok's core. Then, reentry to Earth's atmosphere followed by an epic free fall had brought him to the brinks. It was a miracle that he was still alive. A quick diagnostic confirms that he had suffers a great deal of damage. His helmet was missing, his body armor was in pieces, his black jump suit was torn in many places, and there were many thousands of fractures and micro fractures throughout his body structure. Even with his outlandish auto repair system, it would take him months to fix himself.

He needed to contact Ciel as soon as possible. If he's alive, there's a chance that Weil also survived. Still disoriented, Zero failed to notice he was being surrounded by a group of people as he tries to establish a link to the Resistance base.

It wasn't until a mid-aged man with a wooden staff spoke that Zero realized he was surrounded by a bunch of odd looking human. They all wore some kind of cloak as if they were from an ancient biblical era. Seriously, the mid-age man with his ridiculous staff and cloak looked like Moses leading a bunch of equally weird looking teenagers around. He also noted a few strange looking stuffed animals and a giant blob of 'jello' besides them. _'Maybe they were having a dress up party,'_ he thought absentmindedly.

Receiving no response, the mid-aged man spoke again. It was then that Zero found he had no idea what the man was saying. That was quite a surprise. He had over six thousands languages/dialects in his database and none matched the man's speech pattern.

Trying hard, Zero pushed himself to stand only to receive a great deal of pain. He opted for a sitting position instead and observed.

Then a young girl with pink hair approaches him. She appeared nervous at first but had gathered courage. She kneeled beside him. With two hands, one on each side, she grabbed his hair and flung it back on both sides. Once she took a look at his face, her expression changed from cautious to callous. She began to talk or more like demanded. _'That was bold of her,'_ was Zero's initial impression.

Still not understanding a word, he decided to concentrate on finding a working signal instead and paid little attention the people around him. They were deemed no threat after all.

* * *

Louise had watched her familiar early on. 'She' was now in a sitting position and appeared to be breathing heavily. The thought of a zombie crossed her mind. Still, she mustered her courage and marched over to her familiar, ignoring her classmates' remarks. Determined to take a look at 'her' face, she grabbed 'her' hair with both hand and pushed it back. To her relieved, there was no rotten flesh of any kind. And to her surprised, she found a young man in his early to mid-twenties instead. He was a mess. His face had suffered many bruises and scratches. Dried blood from his left temple down to his chin and blood stain on the right corner of his mouth decorated his face. Despite having sustained such injuries, his deep blue eyes still shined fiercely: a sign of life and intelligence.

"Who are you? Where did you come from? And what have you done with my familiar?" Louise demanded, having restored her confident. The strange man appeared to be ignoring her. That ticked her off. How dare he ignore her, stupid commoner!

"Well, what do you know? It was a man."

"And it's not a zombie too."

"Yeah but he is still a commoner."

"Hahaha. That's so true."

"Mr. Colbert!" Louise shouted.

"What is it, Miss Vallière?"

"Please! Let me try the summoning one more time!"

Mr. Colbert shook his head. "I cannot allow that, Miss Vallière."

"Why not?"

"It is strictly forbidden. When you are promoted to a second year student, you must summon a familiar. Your elemental specialty is decided by the familiar that you summon. It enables you to advance to the appropriate courses. You cannot change the familiar once you have summoned it, because the Springtime Familiar Summoning is a sacred rite. Whether you like it or not, you have to keep him."

"But... I've never heard of having a commoner as a familiar!"

Everyone around laughed. Louise scowled at them, but the laughter continued.

"This is a tradition, Miss Vallière. I cannot allow any exceptions; he," the middle-aged wizard pointed at the hunter, "may be a commoner, but as long as he was summoned by you, he must be your familiar. Never in history has a human been summoned as a familiar, but the Springtime Familiar Summoning takes precedence over every rule. In other words, there is no other way around it: he must become your familiar."

"You have got to be joking..." Louise shoulders slumped in disappointment.

"Well then, please continue with the ceremony. Then, afterward, we need to treat his wounds."

"With him?"

"Yes, with him. Hurry, you have managed to summon him. Hurry and form a contract. Or would you rather be expelled?" Everyone voiced their agreement.

Louise stared at Zero's face and looked doubtful.

"Hey," Louise barked at Zero.

He looked up and suddenly started coughing violently. 'Blood' gushed out from his mouth and he spitted it on to the ground.

Louise was mortified and turned back to Mr. Colbert for a final plead but he just urged her on. She looked at Zero in disgust and he appeared once again gone into some kind of a trance and ignored her. _'He must be deaf or don't understand our language. Oh that's just great!'_ she thought.

Louise took out a handkerchief and wipe the fresh 'blood' off Zero's face none too gently. Finally, she closed her eyes with an air of resignation and waved around her wand. "This must be your lucky day, having a noble doing this to you." Louise mumbled, then began her chant, "I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; bless this humble being, and make him my familiar." With that, she finished her chant and planted a kiss on Zero's lip.

Zero, who was more worried about connection errors than Louise at the moment, was surprised when she kissed him. He was positive she looked at him in disgust just a moment ago. But then humans can be hard to understand so he didn't look into it too much. What bothered him more at the moment was this itchy sensation that was growing ever stronger on his left hand and the rising temperature across his body.

Shortly after she broke the kissed, Zero left hand began to glow and his body started to heat up fast. Hakai no Kami followed by Z.Ω.W. MKII and some unique Runes were in scripted across the backside of his hand and his body was burning. Three distinct programs were being uploaded into his data core. A unique language program being one of them was analyzed and imported into his language database. The other two programs were left aside for further analysis. With that, the contact was completed.

Chapter End

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AN: So that is the first chapter. How was it? Well, not that I cared all that much, but if you decided to leave a review, please talk about the story and not my grammars (I _know_ I am that good). If you find any logic flaw (plot holes) in this fic, tell me.

For example: Why did Colbert let Louise continuing the ritual instead of treating Zero's wounds? I got a cheap excuse for that, but because it was cheap, I am not putting it in officially. In the mean time, give me your view on this. I will reveal my answer the next time I update.

This fic can be seen as a challenge for anyone brave enough to take up the task. For me, it will be base on scenarios rather than the grand schemes of things. That means it will mostly follow the FoZ storyline (meaning Zero will go through what Saito had gone through most of the time hence no major 'meaningful' changes). Saito never deal with grand scale of things and FoZ's storyline is rich enough in itself so I don't see any problem. I have a lot of scenarios and ideas lining up for this crossover. I don't mind sharing. You are welcome to use this chapter as the opening and write your own story or any later chapters you find appropriate. I am a lazy person. I rather read others works than writing my own. If I find a good idea, I might rip it off from yours and stuff it in here though. Also, I am an incredibly slow writer so expect infrequent updates. How slow? A few hundred words for a few hours on a good day…

If you find similarity between this fic and Blade of the Void (another MMZ x FoZ crossover) from time to time and wonders why, that's because this fic was inspired by and base off on it. That fic had tremendous potential but unfortunately handled incorrectly so I had to write my own. Hopefully, it will be better.

Finally, Zero's personality was said to be hard to capture. So which Zero am I using? 'Zero: The soul of a Hero' by Archaon. That's the one I am using, arguably the best MM author out there. If you are too lazy to read his works, then think Hatake Kakashi. End of ranting for now so see you next time.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: So Omega and 'Whack the Mole' doesn't draw in a 0_o moment huh? Hmm, tough crowd indeed…

This was the question last time: Why did Colbert let the ritual continue instead of treating Zero's wounds?

No one tried? Oh well. As promised, here's my take on this. There are often scenarios in which summoned creatures' life force are tied to their summoner's health. In other word, Colbert was hoping Louise could share some of her life force to stabilize Zero's condition. However, if I open that can of worms (reasoning), I face the possibility that Colbert had deliberately jeopardize Louise's safety for a being that may or may not die in the next couple of hours. Of course, I could always say the worst Louise get if her familiar dies would be a fever for a few days and therefore worth the risk. Still, I felt: A) cheap excuse, B) ties me down to facts that may or may not come back to haunt me, C) too lazy to make Colbert do the actual explaining.

* * *

Chapter 2: Familiar and Magic? Welcome to La La Land

After the kiss, Louise backed off and watched dispassionately as her familiar screamed in pain. "It will be over soon; just wait. The Familiar's Runes are being inscribed," Louise said, as if it was an every day event.

The auto language detection system matched the speech pattern to the newly acquired language data and Zero suddenly understood what she was saying. _'Familiar's Runes, what is she talking about?'_ The pain continued for a whole minute before it subsided and the legendary hunter, once again, found himself lying on the ground. The reploid forced himself back into a sitting position. Using his newly acquired language skill, he asked, "Who are you people?" He pointed at the back of his left hand and continued asking, "And what have you done to me?"

Hearing him speak for the first time, Louise was taken aback. He wasn't deaf and he did understand their language, assumed the young mage. That irritated her. That meant this commoner had chosen to ignore her this whole time. She snapped. "What is your name, commoner?" She demanded.

'_Commoner? Well that was rude,'_ thought Zero. "Me? I am Zero," he replied. Before he can say any more, belly-shaking laughter erupted from the crowd as if it was the funniest thing they have ever heard. Some were laughing so hard that they fell to the ground.

"WH-WHAT!?" Louise screamed then froze as her classmates laugh. The day just keep getting worse was her only thought.

"That is so like our Louise."

"Hahaha, even her familiar was named Zero."

"Hahaha, like master like familiar."

"Haha, I-I can't take this anymore, blahaha!"

This was certainly not the reaction Zero expected. Usually when his name was announced, they would either cheer him as a hero or fled in terror. Well some would get excited and preferred a fight. The Guardians comes to mind, then Fairy Leviathan. The legendary hunter involuntarily shuddered at the thought... Anyway, laughing this hard over his name was new. What's so funny about the name 'Zero' anyway?

"That's enough, everyone. Classes are about to resume," Colbert tried to calm the students and succeeded. As the students and their familiar left, Colbert turned back to Louise and said, "Miss Vallière, we need to treat his wounds." He then asked Zero, "Can you walk?"

Slowly, the legend stood, still in pain but managed. He followed the mid-aged man and stole a glanced at the young girl. She seemed to have finally gotten over her shocked but her face was still red with embarrassment or perhaps anger. It looked like the later as she appeared ready to pounce on him at any time...

-z-z-

A short walk later and Zero found himself inside a medieval castle. He continued to search a signal but found none. He wondered if he was inside a highly advance cloak field that block signal transmissions but then the residents here appeared to have no technology at all, not even a light bulb. He started to wonder from which rock had these people crawl out from. As the hunter followed the older guy, he kept glancing back at the girl. She was glaring daggers behind his back this whole time and he kept wondering why...

"Please come in," the old guy opened a door to the infirmary and led them in. The room liked some kind of a cross between an ancient lab and a witch hut. A large desk lay in the back of the room where a large window was located, illuminating the room. Some test tubes can be seen lining up on a desk. There was a big iron pot in the center of the room filled with unknown liquid. On the right side of the room, several shelves filled with some kind of bottles, presumably medicines were located. Next to the shelves, some kind of dried herbs were hanging. The left side had had a small bed for patient and elimination. Next to the bed, there was a small shelf for some kind of books. "Have a sit," the mid-aged man indicated the small bed and went to gather some bottles, a large bowl and some bandages.

Zero accepted the offer and sat on the bed. "Who are you people? And where am I?"

"I am, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, your master, and you are my familiar! You better remember that!" Louise responded irritably, her small hands balled into tiny fists. Colbert gave her a look of disapproval but she frowned at her familiar instead. "Stupid commoner," she added, whispering to herself.

"Huh?" was all Zero could say. He wasn't sure how to respond to the angry girl as she put her fists on both sides of her waist, trying to look imposing. On one hand, she was really rude and deserved to be taught a lesson. On the other hand, she looked like Ciel throwing a fit over one of his dangerous stunts (or an eight year old screaming over some toys). In other words: very cute. Seriously, he felt like laughing in her face right now, but he refrained from doing so. Laughing would only make things worse.

"Miss Vallière, please control yourself," the old guy warns and returned with some bandages and bottles.

"Humph!" was her response. She turned her head to the side, folded her arms but kept glaring at Zero. Her cheek was red and puffed, indicating she was either mad, embarrassed or both.

"I am Professor Colbert and this is Tristain Magic Academy. Miss Vallière, here, summoned you as her familiar," Colbert answered calmly.

"Huh?" again, was Zero's only response. Familiar, magic academy, what are these people talking about? Have he damaged his sound receptors during to the fall and he is now hearing things? Come to think of it, he did saw some strange looking creatures along side the group of people earlier but he didn't really paid much attention to them, thinking they were nothing more than stuffed animals. As he tried recalling some of those images, he found those creatures he had written off as 'stuffed animals' had indeed moved on their own. There were also some very unlikely creatures among them as well. In fact, some of them looked so exotic they appeared out of this world, like that giant blob of 'jello' earlier. On closer examination, it resembled a slime monster from some old RPG game. That thing expanded, contracted and changed shapes from time to time. It was definitively not some jello for a party like he first thought. Have evolution gave birth to those bizarre creatures over the century? Even that blob of jello/slime? Or perhaps his digital recording system was damaged and his memory was corrupted as well...

"How are you holding up? These injuries seemed to be serious," Seeing that he seemed to have zoned out, Colbert decided to focus them on the task at hand.

"Oh, er, it's going to take a while for my auto repair system to take care of it but I will be fine. Some bandages would help," Zero replied absentmindedly. Seeing how low tech they were, he didn't think they would be much help.

'_Auto-repair-system? Natural healing process the body has, maybe...? What an odd phrase to use?'_ Colbert thought. "May I check your pulse? I want to make sure you are fine?" Colbert asked pointed to his left hand.

'_Pulse?'_ he thought. That brought Zero back to reality. A reploid normally would have no pulse, and he took a brief moment (like a tenth of a second) to decide what to do. Finally, Zero decided that it's best to remain anonymous and just go with the flow. He somehow found a way to generate pulses by controlling the flow of his body fluid and started mimicking it to a normal human being. It took less than a second to set his pulse. Once done, he extended his left hand toward Colbert. "Sure."

'_These are some very unusual Runes,'_ Colbert noted as he took Zero's hand. _'His wrist is so cold. He must have lost too much blood. Damn it, he won't last long,'_ Colbert thought gravely. He found the pulse on Zero's wrist quickly and expected the worst. But to his surprise, he found everything appeared to be normal as in a normal-healthy man. That puzzled him greatly. _'How can he have such a strong pulse when he suffered from THIS many injuries? And his body temperature was so low! And these wounds seem fresh too!'_ The professor stole a glance at Louise, _'Just what kind of creature have you summoned, Miss Vallière?'_

As Colbert pondered whether he read the pulse wrong, Louise asked, her voice filled with concern, "Is he alright?"

"Um, he will be fine," Colbert answered, a little caught off guard. It seemed to have ease Louise concern. _'Although, I wish to know how,'_ he thought as he studied the strange familiar carefully. As the familiar simply sit there indifferent to his watchful gaze, the professor decided to move on. "Well then, why don't we put these bandages on? Please remove your armor and clothes."

"Before that, do any of you have anything that I could tie my hair with?" asked Zero. Louise reached into her pocket gave him a pink ribbon.

After Zero tied his hair back, he began slowly removing the little armor pieces that were still intact. He had refused Colbert's help. The professor wouldn't know how to remove them anyway. First came the left shoulder pad which suffered many cracks. Then the upper right chest plate disengaged and came off his body. After removing the remaining armor pieces, the hunter now stood in his battered black jump suit with a black belt across his waist holding his Z-saber and Z-buster.

Louise was watching her familiar this whole time and was shocked to see so many injuries on him. Her eyes were glued to Zero's body, and she winced every time he removed a piece of armor, revealing more nasty wounds underneath. Colbert watched on in amazement. With that many injuries, the familiar should not even be alive, let alone being conscious at all. Zero, on the other hand, appeared as if this was a natural-everyday occurrence and there was nothing to worry about.

"I am ready," Zero announced wearing his worn out black jump suit.

"What about your clothes?" questioned Colbert and pointed to Zero's black suit.

"Oh, there is no need. Just wrap it up," Zero pointed at his gashes and gave a smile of confidence.

Colbert raised an eyebrow at that but decided not to argue over it. He poured some kind of paste from the bottles into the large bowl and began mixing them. When he was about to apply the paste to the wounded hunter, Zero's hand shot forward, stopping Colbert, and spoke, "I don't need that. Just wrap the bandages on my wounds and I will be fine."

"Shut up commoner. You wouldn't know any better," Louise growled. What would he know about treating wounds, stupid commoner?

"Miss Vallière!" Colbert warned.

"Humph!" Louise turned away and folded her arms in defiance.

Colbert sighed. "These herbs will help your wounds heal," he pleaded.

"Trust me; it would not help. I, er, have a special body. It is better you save them for others."

Since Zero would not budge, Colbert sighed and went along with it. After all, his pulse did say he was healthy despite his appearance. Maybe he was allergic to them... The old man retrieved a small wand from a hidden pocket, pointed it at the bandages, and began to chant. The bandages floated and wrapped themselves around the reploid's body.

Zero gawked in disbelieve; his jaw dropped wide open. _'WH-WHAT the HELL was THAT!? Ma-Magic? MAGIC DO EXISTS!?'_

"Is there something wrong?" Colbert asked as he looked at Zero's odd reaction.

Upon hearing Colbert's question, Zero recovered a little and answered, "Erm, nothing. Nothing at all. Everything is normal. Nothing is wrong, absolutely nothing..."

Colbert could tell there is something, but he decided to keep it to himself. Instead, he extended his hand and said, "Hmmm...I like to check your vitals one more time." The familiar nodded and extended his hand. Once again, everything checked normal so the mid-aged mage made his decision, "I like him to stay here and rest a bit more. Miss Vallière, you should go back to class. You can come and pick him up later."

"Yes, Mr. Colbert," Louise replied and glanced at Zero. She was still a bid worried but since Mr. Colbert said he was fine, she have no choice but to go to class.

After Louise left, Colbert turned back to Zero. In an attempt to satisfy his curiosity, he asked, "I got a few questions I would like to ask." He waited until Zero looked at him before he continued, "First of all, where did you from?"

"Uh haha," not wanting to give away too much information yet, Zero decided to answer as vague as possible, "I am from, um, the north." He had no idea where he was at the moment let alone where 'north' was; he just randomly picked a direction.

"North huh...?" Colbert waited a bit for him to elaborate. But when nothing else came, he asked, "What happened to you?" Colbert indicates the hunter's injuries.

"Oh, there was a fight and I was, er, forced to jump off, er, a cliff or something..." mumbled Zero. It was true: There was a huge fight and he did fell from a high place, except it wasn't a cliff...

'_What kind of answer is that? He is clearly hiding something,'_ thought Colbert.

Zero detected that Colbert wanted to continue so he faked a couple of coughs and held his head pretending to suffered from some sort of head pain like amnesia or something. He then said, "Ow, I think I need some rest now."

Since this commoner left no room for further discussion, Colbert nodded and let his patient rest.

Meanwhile, Zero lay down on the bed and started to think. Nothing good will come out by answering them truthfully. Not yet, he reasoned. Still, he got to admit that it was amazing for this tribe of people to actually learned magic. They have achieved what all the scientists in the world deemed impossible. Ciel would be amazed... Pushing that aside, he continued his search. Still nothing; the reploid decided to do a thorough diagnostic and assess his damage.

* * *

The sun had set when Louise came to picked him up from the infirmary. "How is he doing, Mr. Colbert?"

"Oh, he is doing fine. You can take him back, Miss Vallière," said Colbert. He had given up on getting any information from Zero. He had skillfully avoided most of his questions and gave him really vague answers. Colbert was a little disappointed at that but since this commoner appeared wanting to say no more and his injuries seemed not as serious as he first thought, he decided to let him go. "Just make sure to let him rest and he should recover soon."

"Yes, Mr. Colbert," Louise bowed respectfully. She then walked toward to Zero, her attitude changed completely to the opposite. "You, come," she commanded, glaring at Zero.

Zero raised an eyebrow but followed her as she walked out of the room. They were now inside the corridor of the medieval castle. Torches were the main source of light here. Louise led Zero through a door and led him outside.

Once Zero was out in the open, he happened to looked up and saw something that shouldn't be there: Moons. Two huge moons illuminated the night sky: one pink, one blue. He stopped following Louise and pointed at the moons, his jaw dropped wide open for a second time for the day. _'Where on EARTH am I!?'_

Hearing no footsteps following her, Louise turned to see her familiar pointing at the full moons as if it was the first time he ever saw them. "What, it's just the moons. Let's go commoner; I am tired."

"B-but there are two of them!"

"Yes, so? Come on, let's go," Louise urged, not really caring.

He stood there unmoving, his mind racing. _'Ok, first there was magic, and now this. I must have died! And this is the afterlife! Or I am in a comma and this is some kind of dreams. That's right; I must be in La La Land! There is simply no way that 'magic' exists and no way it could have achieved interplanetary travel!'_ Zero fell back onto the ground. He was in denial. _'Perhaps if I sleep a bit and wake up tomorrow, everything will go back to normal!'_

"Hey, don't sleep out here!" Louise boomed and walked over to Zero. Seeing that he ignored her yet again, her patient had completely ran out. "Did you hear what I said!?" she kicked him in the face. Her foot hit his face and... "Ouch! What's your head made of?" the young mage whined, holding her foot in pain.

"Hey, don't do that!" he yelled at her immediately after the kick.

The pink hair girl didn't pay any attention to his disgruntlement. She favored in holding her foot and trying to soothe the pain instead. She felt like she just kicked a large rock. Who knew kicking someone in the face was so painful...

Zero looked at the girl and almost laughed. Shaking his head, the reploid begin to think, _'Ok, it is too early to give up. Maybe this girl is the key to set things straight. She did got me here, right?'_ Zero got back to his feet as his mind began forming many questions and different scenarios of how this happened. But first, he must address her sternly for her action, "Kicking people when they are down is not nice!"

"Shut up, commoner; you should have followed me instead of messing around," Louise said, still holding her foot and not looking at him as she tried shaking out the pain. A minute passed and Louise resumed her march and led the way, completely ignoring Zero's disapproving stares.

Soon they entered a new door on the other side of the castle from which they came from and reached the dorm. Louise took a few turns, walked up a few floors and finally reached her room, ignoring stares from the few classmates and servants along the way. She opened the door and stepped in. Zero followed.

The first thing Louise did, after lighting the room with an oil lamp, was to get comfortable. She brought her hand up to the top button of her blouse and started to undo them. Soon, she stripped down to her underwear.

"Wh-wh-what are you doing?" stammered Zero.

Louise answered as if it was the most obvious thing. "I'm changing into my nightgown. It's getting late."

"Do it elsewhere, like in the bathroom where I can't see you!" Zero turned his back to her.

"Why?" Her undergarment came off.

"Because I am right here! Have some decency!" Still facing away.

"How dare you question my decency! You are just my familiar." She tried to stare him down but he was facing away. Seeing it as pointless, she putted on her nightgown and climbed into bed.

'_Wow, she sees me as a pet and not a guy...,'_ thought Zero. The legendary hunter contemplated whether he should be mad or just laugh it off. Seriously, that was quite insulting. He tried to calm down. Finally, he let it pass. After all, in his eye, she was still a child. Zero sighed. Then a pink laced panty flew and landed on the top of his head. _'She's just a kid. She's just a kid...'_ Zero mentally chanted.

"Hey, you, what other names do you have because I am not going to call you Z-Zero you know."

"Why not?" Zero turned to her, grabbed her panty and threw it on the floor. _'A rather spoiled kid...'_ Zero mentally added. He had to be the adult here, he reasoned.

"Because it's such a stupid name."

"It is just a name," He walked over to a chair, next to a desk, sat down and continued, defending his name, "plus I think it can be an incredible name."

"I don't care. I hate it."

"Hmmm," Zero stopped for a moment and think of a response, "Well people did slap me with a nick name lately but I don't think you would like it."

"Why is that? What's the name?" asked Louise lazily. In her opinion, anything would be better than Zero.

"You want to know?"

"Humph!"

"Fine, but if you don't like it, we will stick with Zero," he said. He observed her for a few seconds, but she just stared at him impatiently. Zero took her silence as a yes and said, "They called the God of Destruction but since it's such a long name, you may call me GoD with a capital D."

"Wh-what!" Louise shot from her laying position, "The nerve," grabbed her pillow, chewed on it a bid and launched it at Zero, "I am your master. You are just my familiar, commoner," she pointed her finger at Zero, her face red and puffed, and continued, "I am not calling you god."

"Well then, Zero it is," Anticipated her reaction, Zero raised his hand up and caught her pillow all the while smiling, indicating it was meant to be a joke. This seemed to have a desirable effect as Louise calmed down.

"What qualified me as a commoner anyway?" Zero asked, trying to change the subject.

"A commoner is someone who is not a mage."

"That's it?"

"Well, pretty much yes. Look, I rather not get into the specifics." Louise folded her arms with an air of superiority. "But why '_Zero_'?" Louise, still upset over his name, asked. She had calmed down a bid and Zero had tossed back her pillow to which she was hugging. "It's such a blasphemous name." As Zero raise an eyebrow in question, Louise explained, "...like you are nothing, you always failed..." Louise was barely audible and was clearly skulking, her face buried in her pillow.

'_She seems to have confident issues,'_ observed Zero. "Hmm, really? I don't see it that way. I think it is a pretty cool name," Louise raised her own eyebrow and the legendary hunter decided to show her, "I shall reduce you to zero," Zero say it in a low sinister voice that sent chills down Louise's spine. The hunter continued with a much more casual and care free tone, "...or your army to zero or send you to nothingness. See, it's an incredibly badass name."

"Bad-as? ...Humph!" She won't admit it but it did sent chills down her body. She was sure others would feel the same. Still, she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to let him kept the name. In the end, she decided to let it go. "Fine, Zero. If that's what you want."

"By the way, you used '_magic_' to summon me here, right?" Breaking Louise's train of thoughts, Zero continued, "That means a temporal-space-travel ability, right?" Zero waited until she slowly nodded before he continues, "By any chance, do you know how to un-summon me? Like send me back to where I came from?"

"That's impossible," Louise yawned.

"Why not? Look, I am not your ideal familiar. I am, er, just a '_commoner_'. Wouldn't it be better for you to summon something else, like a dog or something? Send me back and you can do over for something better!" Zero exclaims the last part as he tries to make it sound exciting.

However, Louise answered boringly as if she was reciting a well known fact, "I would if I could but you've been bound by a contract as my familiar; once the bond is established, it can't be undone."

"You got to be kidding me."

Not liking where this is going, Louise changed the subject and asked, "Where did you came from anyway?"

Hearing that, Zero suddenly felt very tired. Since she was just a kid and the information to his identity was no longer relevant to anyone at this point, he let his guard down and answered monotonically, "Neo Arcadia." After all, who would ever consider him to be a legendary figure?

"I have never heard of such a place."

"That's because it's far, farrr away."

"What's Neo Arcadia like?"

Zero stopped and thinks of a likely response. In his world, their technology would probably like magic to her and he really didn't feel like explaining at the moment so he began to replacing techno terms with magic terms. "It was a magical kingdom with magical stuffs."

"Like what?" Louise asked curiously.

"Like a light bulb. With a flip of a switch, light turns on," Zero answered dispassionately. It had been such a long day that he now had closed his eyes, set his left arm on the desk and rest his head on his elbow, his mind no longer focus.

"Really? No wand or incarnation necessary?" Louise asked to which Zero nodded. Louise was skeptical at first, but since she detected no lies, she began to believe him. "What do you do in Neo Arcadia?"

"I am a reploid fighting against a tyrant."

"What is a reploid?"

"An android."

"Android?"

Instead of giving a long answer like - a robot emulating a human, followed by what a robot is, he yawned, "Magical knight." At this point Zero was so tired that he let his mind ran on auto pilot. He was hung over on the fact that he was stuck in this dream world with no way out. His body was a mess and this girl just kept on asking stupid questions with no end in sight. A little mistake like this was unavoidable.

"Really?" Louise suddenly perked up with excitement. _'A magical knight?'_ echoed across her mind. Maybe he was not as useless as she first thought. Finally getting somewhere with her familiar, she asked, "What kind of magic can you do?" Her hopes were high.

"All kinds." Not realizing her excitement, Zero's mind continued to run on auto pilot.

Louise threw her pillow to the side, jumped up from her bed and rushed up to Zero. She was a foot away from him and stared right at his face, her eyes shining with excitement like Alouette getting a brand new bunny doll (or a six-year-old in a candy store). "Really?! What element can you perform?"

"Element?" Finally realizing his mistake, Zero looked back at the girl with full awareness, but it was too late. With the level of excitement she was displaying now, he had to think up of something. Since he lost his helmet when he woke up here, he was unable to link up with his elemental chips. Although he might be able to redirect those links and produce the elemental effects, it would not be very effective. Plus she looked so excited, he was sure she would ask him to perform all kinds of elements. That takes too much time and effort; he rather decline. Let the girl call him a liar, he reasoned, not a big deal.

"Yes. Like water?" Louise asked excitedly.

"No." Zero returned to his previous position of un-interest.

"Fire?" Still hoping.

"Nope." The hunter answered unenthusiastically.

"Earth?" She was beginning to loose hope.

Zero shook his head lazily.

"Well then, wind?" She lowered her head in resignation. She already knew what the answer would be. She just wanted to confirm it. Life had never been easy on her, and she figured it wouldn't start now.

Zero took in a breath and blew across the top of Louise's head, rattling her hair.

"Then you don't know magic at all!" Louise snapped. She was mad.

"What difference does it make what element I have or not?" Zero cuts her off.

"It makes a lot of difference," said Louise. Folding her arms together, Louise proceeded to explain, "A familiar's element determines its master's elemental affinity. It determines what kind of magic I can learn. If you have none, that means... Why did you lie?" She whined.

'_That is interesting,'_ Zero noted but he really needs some rest. "Cause I feel like it," answered the tired hunter. Before Louise could response to that, Zero added, "Didn't you say you were tired? You should go to sleep. I will put myself in stasis." The hunter got up. He did not care anymore. Whatever happens will happen. When the time comes, it would be better for him to have at least a working body so getting there now was the top priority.

"Stasis?"

"Hibernation," he clarified and went to floor by Louise's window and lay down.

"Like a bear?"

"Yes."

"Can you even do that?" Louise looked skeptical.

"Of course, I am a '_magical knight_' after all," Zero rolled his eyes.

"Why hibernate?"

"I needed to heal myself," responded the tired hunter and closed his eyes. "I will be awake in about three days so don't go bury me in a hole or something," the reploid added as a precaution. The last thing he needed right now was to wake up buried in a grave, six feet under. He then promptly shut himself down along with all his weapons. It wouldn't be good if he was to be accidentally stabbed or blasted with his own weapons by some naive or curious individuals while he slept.

Louise watched as her familiar went silent. She observed him for a few more minutes before deciding to go sleeping herself. She went and blew out the oil lamp then climbed back in her bed. She would deal with whatever challenges tomorrow brings, she decided.

Chapter End

* * *

AN: If this chapter makes you laugh, good. That means it is doing what I indented it to do. If it does not, oh well. It just means I have a…twisted sense of humor. Anyway I feel pretty good with this chapter as it had done pretty much what I ask for (plot wise) so, yeah...

Review if you wanted to.

Answers to reviewers (or my ranting so please just ignore me here):

Lord Sigfry: Sorry and everyone, I lied. Here is the 'real' summery: Instead of Saito, Louise summoned the legendary Maverick Hunter Zero as her familiar. Let's explore what would happen. ^̬^

Shintouyu: On the cloak issue: Point taken. However, I was thinking it was more of a culture clash thing and not double standard. You may want to fact check me on this (I am too lazy to do so myself) but as far as I remember, Zero only wear cloak during the opening of Z2 and he had good reasons to do so. Beyond that, I just don't recall him wearing any. I don't recall any Resistant soldier or Neo Arcadia guys (with the exception of Phantom) wearing one either; even humans in Z4 don't wear them. Let's face it; people in both the X and Zero series wore cloaks to serve useful functions. The folks in FoZ wore them as fashionable items. It's highly unlikely that Zero would walk into a room full of people wearing cloaks (just to look great) during his life time hence why he feel strange.

Nyamu: Offense? None taken. Since you gave me a long review, I give you a long reply. I hope I did not offense you either. First, I appreciate your suggestion for a Zero Boot Camp, but unfortunately I lack the skill to put that into good use (I just can't find a believable scenario for that). Perhaps I should have made myself clearer when I say 'things are largely going to remain the same'. What I really mean is that both Saito and Zero will encounter a similar set of circumstances but what they do about it is going to be vastly different. Further more, Saito's quests (be it success, failure, big or small) never showed much direct implications to anything. It just goes to show how loosely the situation in FoZ can be interpreted. I like to explore the politic and economic sides too. But with no clear views and many uncontrollable variables, it can render FoZ's plot no longer FoZ. One wrong move and you are screwed. I like reshaping scenarios, not constructing them from scratch. You liked Z4, right? What was Zero's final conversation with Kraft about again? So yeah, let's leave the hard stuffs to Princess Henrietta and let her handle them like she normally would. Zero's involvement should remain limited: small advises or Special Ops (like Wardes's case) at most. On some side notes: FoZ being an easy crossover. I am half agreeing with you on this. Generally speaking, Louise's ability to summon all available heroes/villains made it easy. But when you consider her inherent character flaws (not just her personality), that number was cut from infinite to a handful. If she gets the wrong one, she could end up abandoned (the most likely case), dead or worse. And of course, she can do nothing about it either. SAO x FoZ? Hmm, in general, it's going to be a problematic crossover but who knows...

jetslinger333: Half dead? I am not sure if we should even qualify him as being alive at all... LOL

ManaZero: Well, there will be changes but I am not so sure about giving them futuristic technical support…

pltrgst: Ok...

the real Marik Ishtar: Zero from X series? Nice idea. Well go ahead and make it. I want to see one. I dare you to make one. One advise though: make sure doing it wisely. Zero from X 1-6 faces an acute problem described above so you may need some creative setups to make it work (same with mine here, except less severe). As for why Z4, because he had completed all tasks in his universe and had became a free agent (I do not buy ZX series as genuine souls of heroes but I rather not get into that debate here).

Wow, still reading this? You must either really liked my ranting or so very bored. Ok, I shall provide you with something to think about. I spoke of compatibility. Who do you think is the most compatible with Louise? Put it in your review if you wanted to or not. For me: X is a much better candidatethan Zero. Kakashi seems better too. Hell, even Saito edged out Zero by a nose, I think. But I am not exactly trying to make her life easier by giving her the best. In fact, I choose Zero so that I could mess with her life and make her miserable just so I could laugh at her. I am so evil. Anyway, she is not the only one I wanted to make fun of. I would jump at the chance to humiliate any character in here, really; and Zero is one of my prime targets. Yup, so evil...

Here's my philosophy on this fic: 'If there's an opportunity stood before me, I will not hesitate. I shall humiliate the hell out of them.' Does anyone find this quote familiar? Just wondering…

What?! You are still reading this crap? Ok, here's a bonus little secret. I actually had 5 chapters completed before I upload the first. I plan to upload it about once a month, allowing me to do other chapters, hopefully. The first was meant to be a teaser, to test the water. So yeah...

Well, that is the end of my ranting. Goodbye everyone and uh, see you next time…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Of Zombie-san, Master Thief, & Mysterious Runes

The three days had not been kind to Louise. Both her teachers and classmates had asked where her familiar had gone. She answered that he was hibernating in her room but no one except Mr. Colbert believes her. Some even spread rumors that her familiar was really dead, and she was hiding his body. Others ridiculously suggested that her familiar had become a zombie, and she had to put him under chains.

True, her familiar had no heartbeat nor body heat but he didn't smell like a corpse. And while he was in her room the whole time, he was not under any bound. She had been afraid at first when she checked on him the day after his 'hibernation'. She asked Mr. Colbert for help and explained what happened the night before. Colbert was puzzled at her familiar's strange ability but told her to wait and see. If her familiar does not decay, then there was nothing to worry about. Another day passed and nothing happened, no smell of decaying flesh. That had put Louise at ease.

Then this morning, she heard rumors of a mysterious figure roaming around academy ground, watching the students. The mysterious figure reportedly has long blond hair and would vanish in a blink of an eye, like a ghost. The thought of it being Zero did come across her mind but she dismissed it.

It was noon and Louise had the rest of the day off, and she decided to check up upon her familiar. When she got to her room, she discovered that her familiar was missing. She bolted out her room in worry. Many questions ran through her mind. Where had her familiar gone? Did his hibernation ended? Did someone broke into her room and steal him from her? Who would do such a thing?

Louise grabbed a random maid and asked, "Have you seen my familiar?" She was frantic.

* * *

Zero wakes up and finds himself in the same room he had been before he went into stasis. That meant one thing: he was still stuck in this reality. The hunter sighed. A quick check on his body confirmed that he was in much better shape. All his external wounds had been sealed, his black jump suit was fully repaired, and many of his internal damages fixed. While his body was far from being 'battle ready', at least he would be able to move around with little trouble.

It was early morning and the sun shined brightly through the window. The girl, Louise, was not in the room. He decided to get up and explore his surrounding, but first, he need to clean himself.

With bandages still covering more than half of his body and most of his face, Zero roamed around the student dorm looking like some sort of undead. In his attempt to find a bathroom, the hunter encountered a couple of maids cleaning the hall. He was about to ask them where he could find a one but they ran away in screams of terror before he could utter a word. _'What wrong with them?'_ Zero thought and continued his search. A minute later, he encountered another maid and the same thing happened. This time, he decided to give chase and cornered the maid.

She had black hair and is young and cute, observed Zero. As the hunter approach, the young maid put her hands together, lowered her head and pleaded, "Please don't eat me, Zombie-san."

'_Zombie-san? What's wrong with her?'_ Zero was at a lost of word. Shaking his head, the hunter sighed, "...Don't worry, I am not going hurt you." That seems to have put her at ease. "But why Zombie-san?" He just had to ask.

"You are Miss Vallière's familiar right?" she asked. At his nod, she continues, "They say you were dead when Miss Vallière summoned you here. Then you suddenly rise up like... and everyone called you..." she looked apologetic at this point.

"I see..." The hunter was deep in thought, _'Dead? It must be before I wake up...'_

"I am Siesta," the maid smiled and bowed. "Nice to meet you."

"I am Zero. Nice to meet you too, Siesta," the reploid smile back, "Um, I am looking for a bathroom. Do you know where it is, Siesta? I am afraid I am not familiar with this place."

"Oh, it is this way, Zero-san." Siesta led Zero to the bathroom door.

"Thank you. You should go back to work now. I will be fine from here." The maid nodded and left as Zero enters the bathroom.

Zero stripped the bandages off and proceeded to clean himself while plotting his next move. When he emerged from the bathroom, the hunter decided to retrieve the broken armor pieces left in the infirmary. But first, he used a little bid of energy and hid his weapons around his belt through holographic-concealment. He really didn't want to explain their uses...

Zero ninja-ed his way to the infirmary, not wanting to disturbed the 'locals'. He enters the infirmary and finds no one. His broken armor was currently laid across the large desk in the back along with some kind of tools and an old looking book. Apparently someone was trying to check out the properties of his armor if the tools on the desk were to suggest. Zero placed his right hand over his armor. Using some energy from his reserve, the reploid proceed to phase out the armor. He wouldn't be needing it so long as he was to stuck here, not that the broken armor was in any condition of use at the moment...

The hunter's attention was drawn to the book sitting on the desk with a title call 'Book of Runes'. He looked at the runes on the back of his left hand and book. Before he can read what was inside, he detected someone coming. Not wanting to encounter Colbert and be subjected to his 'curious mind' at the moment, Zero sneaked out of the infirmary.

After he left, Zero decided to learn more about the 'locals' and went on an information gathering trip (aka: spying).

-z-z-

"Hey, have you heard? Louise the Zero have summoned a commoner as her familiar."

"Really? I heard it was a zombie..."

"Hahaha... Who is there?"

Zero quickly left. In his quest to learn more about the 'locals', he discovered that Louise was often the laughing stock. He felt a bit sorry for her. No wonder she was always in a bad mood; she was being bullied. This place comprised of students, teachers, and other staff members. All of students and teachers looked like mages and appeared wealthy while the other staff members looked like servants.

The reploid didn't learn much from these human and decided to take a look on his surrounding instead. Finding the tallest structure, Zero began to wall-jumped to the top. Once he got there, the hunter gets a breathtaking bird's eye view of his surrounding. The tower that he was on was part of a massive structure that stretch out to form a large castle complex in shape of a five-point star. Five great walls surrounded the huge castle to form a pentagon. Green meadows can be seen on both inside and outside the walls.

With a beautiful blue sky, it was certainly a relaxing scene. Zero decided to rest a bit and thinks about his situation. He needed to find a way back to his own world. He was pretty sure Weil was dead but he needed to confirmed it and make sure everything he had done was not in vain. He had faith in Ciel, but he would still like to see things with his own eyes. Whether he can go back depends a lot on these local mages though.

The sky was clear and the birds were chirping. It was such a beautiful day and the legendary maverick hunter began to imagine his days here. It certainly wasn't bad to retire in such a peaceful place. Over time, it might become too boring for him but war was not an option. If it was either having fun fighting worthy opponents and risk constant war or living a boring life in such a peaceful place, he would choose this peaceful place. After centuries of conflicts, the hunter was tired.

His thought shifted to the 'locals'. Being low tech as they were, they didn't mess up their environment. That's definitely a plus. All he now has to do was to guide Louise to become a better person and his mission here would be complete.

It was noon when a bell suddenly rang. Students poured out from the huge complex, many with their familiar-creatures. Zero watched as a pink hair girl walked hurriedly to the student dorm. He decided to return to Louise before she makes a fuss about it.

* * *

Louise reached her room and found Zero missing. She randomly asked a maid, who happens to be Siesta, and she told her that her familiar was looking for a bathroom early. Louise was mad. Her familiar had left without letting her know. She now stood in front of that bathroom and screamed, "Zero!" She entered the bathroom without bother knocking. Luckily, the room was empty. A large amount of used bandages was left in the trash can, indicating her familiar was here.

Louise stormed out of bathroom and continued her search. She asked a couple more people on her way as she made her way to the dorm exit. By now, many students had heard the commotions she caused.

"Hey guys, it looks like Louise's familiar was missing."

"No way, you mean it ran away from her?"

"Yup, that's what it looks like."

"Oh no, it means Mr. Zombie is on the loose."

"Hahaha..."

"Oh Louise, you should have keep that commoner under lock like I told you," A boy with curly blonde hair and wore a frill-trimmed shirt said as Louise passes by. He looked rather self-important and had a rose stuck in his shirt pocket. "You do have the locks and chains I gave you right?"

"Shut up, Guiche." Louise continued her march.

Louise was furious by the time she sees the exit. The comments she heard along the way had pushed her way beyond reasoning. She now stood raging mad.

"Yo, Louise," Zero greeted Louise at the main entrance of the building just as he walked in.

"You..." Louise marched over to Zero, grabbed then his arm and dragged him to her room, her face unreadable.

Not realizing the extent of Louise's anger, he went along with her. The other students he met along the way, however, chose wisely to stay out of her way and whispers among themselves. A few female students even gave him a look of pity.

When they reached her room, Louise shoved Zero in and closed the door behind them. She then wordlessly marched to a drawer and began to search.

"Louise," Zero began.

"Shut up!"

Sighed, Zero tried again, "Louise, I know I left without telling you. But you weren't there when I wake up so I decide to explore a little. Look, I am back so calm down."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" She walked back with shackles in hands. She didn't really hear what Zero says. Enraged, she was in her own little world, "I know I should have done this earlier! You commoner cannot be trusted!"

'_She wouldn't...'_ Zero mind was somewhat blanked when she came back with chains and locks. The hunter stood and watched in stupor as she yells; then she putted shackles on both of his hands and one end of a chain around his neck and another end to a wall. His mind screamed, _'Is she serious!? What have I done to deserve this?'_ He was livid. Who the hell did she think she was to put him under chains?!

Louise went on and screamed something about discipline but Zero's mind was thinking more in the line of slapping her silly. The hunter closed his eyes and counted to ten. He really didn't want to hit a little girl but he was so tempted to...

Once Zero is calmed, he decided the course of actions. First, these shackles and chain need to come off. Then he will need a long talk with this little brat. He contemplated whether he should break the locks with brute force but then, decided to do it in another way. Brute force was not the best option while his body was still recovering... Zero grabbed a hair pin on a desk near him and proceeded to pick the locks on his wrists. The locks lasted less than three seconds.

Louise watches as the locks on his wrists became undone and fell off to the floor. _'What is he? A master thief?'_ She was very surprised by the turn of event and had fallen silent, her anger momentarily forgotten. "How?" was all the mage in training managed to utter.

"Damn... spoiled brat..." The hunter muttered and proceeded to pick the lock on his neck and it too lasted less than three seconds.

Louise looked at the locks on the floor and slowly raised her head, her anger started to build once more. So what if he can pick a few locks? He is still her familiar and just a commoner, and he had caused her so much embarrassment these last few days that he deserved to be punished. In her defiance, Louise stared right in Zero's face or more specifically, his eyes. Then she froze; her survival instinct kicked in and her anger was replaced with fear almost instantly.

"Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière!" Zero bellowed, his tone icy, his eyes glaring. The legendary hunter watches in glee as Louise cowered in fear. This was how most people behave around him when he gets serious, and he had always enjoyed it, well to a certain degree anyway.

"Ye-Yes!" Louise managed in reply, temporary forgetting that he is her familiar, and he is a commoner, and that she is his master. This was the second time she saw her familiar with such murderous gaze. The first time was when he defended his name. Despite wanting to run away in screams of terror, she stood her ground and tried to act brave. She absolutely refused to bow down at the moment. That would be too much a blow to her pride. She would rather die.

"We need to talk," Zero continued his icy tone and was glaring at her. Despite his outward appearance, Zero was inwardly commending the girl, _'She has guts standing her ground.'_

Terrorizing a young girl is normally not his idea of fun but he will make an exception for her. He continued to glare and Louise gulped as she waits. It was so entertaining to watch her feeble attempts to act brave that Zero lost his anger. Still, he maintained his murderous gaze and decided to see how far he can push her, "Looks like it is time we lay some ground rules around here."

Once again, Zero pause and glared at Louise, making the atmosphere tense. Louise gulped and nodded in response, "First," Zero slowly move his murderous gaze from Louise to the shackles, "these are unacceptable."

Louise nodded slowly.

"As for my service to you, there will be limits," Zero had once again stared directly at Louise, his tone frozen. "Understand?!"

Louise gulped. Just as she was about to break under pressure, there was knock at the door followed by, "Miss Vallière's, this is Professor Colbert. Are you there? May I come in?"

* * *

Professor Colbert had just finished today's class and was heading to the infirmary/lab just like the pass few days. Ever since the Springtime Familiar Summoning a couple days ago, he'd been concerned and intrigued about the commoner that Louise summoned. Many questions surrounds the young man remains unanswered. Everything about him was a mystery.

As he walked through the corridors of the academy, he remembered how he first met the familiar. From no pulse to fully-healthy pulses was very odd. Then there was hibernation. He didn't believe anyone could accomplish such a feat until Louise told him of her familiar's unusual ability. She was afraid something went wrong with her familiar but he told her to wait and see as her familiar instructed. He had since checked with Louise for the pass couple of days: no pulse, no body heat, just as if he was dead. But then, there was no rotting of flesh either. The familiar did appear to be hibernating...

The familiar's damaged armor was also mysterious. It was of unique design and its material, unknown. It was the reason why he went to the lab these couple of days. The armor itself had clearly been damaged beyond repair: only parts and pieces remain. Of those remaining pieces, they were full of dents and cracks. Yet despite those damages, he was not able to break it apart for further studies. He had tried to use varies tools but was unable to put forth any further damage, not even a scratch.

Colbert's runic name was 'Colbert the Flame Serpent.' As his name suggested, fire magic was his specialty. When tools failed to produce result, he resorted to magic. He had started off with weak spells then gradually made it stronger. Finally, he had used the highest level of fire magic he knew and watched in amazement as the cracked armor piece survived the assault. Normal metals would have melted completely. Upon touching the piece, he was shocked to find that it wasn't even warm. The heat had somehow managed to dissipate almost instantly. When Colbert examined it, he was further surprised to find that his spell had failed to put forth any additional damage. He had never seen this kind of metal before.

Metal with such properties was beyond his understanding and probably any mages he knew. Still, Colbert had the help of an earth mage professor today. Hopefully, she would be able to provide a better insight on such strange metal.

"Hello, Professor Colbert, so are you ready to show me that strange metal you were talking about?" A short mid-aged woman with a pointy hat was waiting for him at the door of the infirmary/lab and greeted him.

"Ah, yes, Professor Chevreuse. This way," Colbert opened the door and led the way. "I had tried everything but this metal was beyond my knowledge." Colbert led his guest to the desk where the armor was placed and was surprised to find it missing.

"So, where is this metal you were talking about?" The earth mage questioned.

'_Where have the armor pieces gone?'_ Colbert's mind was racing. _'...Louise's familiar must have waked up and took it back,'_ he concluded. "It seems the owner came back and retrieved it."

"That is too bad, Professor Colbert. I was looking forward to see it." Chevreuse sounded a bit disappointed.

"I really wanted to show you too, Professor Chevreuse. Anyway sorry to have bothered you, but I have somewhere else to attend to. Good bye," Colbert promptly left the earth mage professor who sighed, then finally left as well.

-z-z-

Colbert left the infirmary/lab and was now heading toward the student dorm. The thought of seeing Louise's familiar excites him. As Colbert makes his way toward student dorm, he made a list of questions he wanted to ask. Then memories of the previous day hit him.

-Flashback Start-

_Colbert was doing some research in the Fenrir's Library. The familiar one of his student summoned two days ago was full of mysteries. Hibernation and strange armor were probably just the tip of the iceberg. He had also checked upon the two strange objects on his belt, but yielded no result. One was a small silver tube like some kind of sword handle and the other looked suspiciously like a gun. However, it held no bullet chamber anywhere making it look more of a strange looking toy gun instead. Currently though, he was looking into the unusual runes on the familiar's left hand. He had given up on the strange letters: Hakai no Kam Z.Ω. __._

_The normal up-to-date books on runes had yielded no result. Colbert had exhausted all his options and was forced to look up ancient texts. He levitated up to an out-of-reach shelf where ancient texts were kept and scanned for anything in particular. His gaze soon fell upon a very old and plain looking book titled 'Book of Runes'. What drawn his attention though was the author: Brimir Ru Rumiru Yuru Viri Vee Varutori. It was a book which held descriptions of familiar runes during Founder Brimir's time._

_Colbert opened and scanned the book for its contents. It only took several pages of flipping before he saw the unusual runes he was looking for. As he read the descriptions the runes, his eyes grew wide. His attention was focused on one particular paragraph and he had to read it a couple of times to make sure he was not mistaken. Each time he read, his excitement grew. He compared the runes on book with a sketch he'd made one last time, making sure he had not made any mistake, and left the library in hurry with the book in hand._

_His next destination was the Headmaster's Office._

_-z-z-_

_Once Colbert reached the Headmaster's Office, he thrown open the door with a slam and rushed inside; his excitement was too great to contain at the moment. "Old Osmond!" Colbert called._

"_What is it?" An old man with white beard and hair answered. He is currently on the ground, picking himself up._

"_Are you alright?" Seeing the old headmaster getting up from the ground had momentarily dampened Colbert's excitement. He was genuinely concern about the old man's health._

"_Oh, I am fine, although I wish someone would have helped this old man up instead..." The old man pouted at the other occupant across the room - a beautiful young lady in her twenties with green hair – with a pair puppy eyes._

_The beautiful lady in question sat at her desk and worked in silence, completely ignoring the old headmaster. From what Colbert could see, the woman's face was slightly flushed and had a little frown on her face. As Colbert watch Osmond dusted himself off, he came a conclusion and mentally sighed, 'Old Osmond must have done something inappropriate in front of Miss Longueville again...'_

_Deciding not to dwell on Miss Longueville and Headmaster Osmond's activities, Colbert tried to remember his purpose of coming here. Soon, he got excited all over again, "I have some big news!"_

"_There is no such thing as big news. Everything is but a collection of small events." the old headmaster lazily walked back to his desk._

"_Please take a look at this!" Colbert handed Osmond old book._

_The old mage opened the book to the page with a bookmark, "This is 'The Familiars of the Founder Brimir,' is it not? Why are you digging around old literature like this? If you have time to do that, why don't you think up some better ways of collecting school fees from those slacking nobles? Mister, err... What was it again?" Sir Osmond cocked his head looking pretty uninterested._

"_It's Colbert, Jean Colbert! You forgot?"_

"_Right, right. I remember now. It's just that you talked so fast I never really caught it. So, Colby, what's about it in this book?"_

"_Please take a look at this as well!" Colbert then handed him the sketch of the runes he had._

_An eyebrow was raised but Osmond's expression did not change. "So I see you have enjoyed art lessons too. Good for you," said Osmond, not entirely understanding his point._

_Shaking his head, Colbert elaborated, "It was not from a book."_

_The moment he heard that, Osmond's expression became serious. "Miss Longueville, would you please excuse us?"_

_Miss Longueville stood up and left the room._

_Osmond spoke only after he confirmed she was properly outside. "Please explain everything to me in detail, Mister Colbert."_

_..._

_..._

_..._

"_What about these strange letters?" asked the old headmaster as he pointed to 'Hakai no Kam Z.Ω.W.__MKII__' on the drawing._

"_I was unable to find out the meaning behind them," Colbert sounded a little disappointed as he answers. "However, judging from these runes, Miss Vallière's familiar is likely the legendary Gandalfr, and he seems to be highly intelligent as well. He is definitely not just some ordinary commoner," Colbert concluded. His excitement soon came to a stop as he voiced his concerns, "He also seems very cautious of us... I just got this uneasy feeling of him ... I am not entirely sure if Miss Vallière can handle him."_

"_I see..." Osmond stopped and think for a moment. "Professor Colbert, please keep an eye on him and watch over Miss Vallière." At Colbert's node, the old headmaster add, "However, please do not interfere with them too much."_

"_But," Colbert begins but was cut off._

"_Despite Miss Vallière's 'ability', she is still a mage in our academy. She shall handle this on her own. We do not want to further complicate her studies here. As for her familiar, we shall wait and see before we take any action. I do not wish any misunderstanding arise from this 'Gandalfr'," said the old headmaster, still a bit doubtful of the whole 'Gandalfr' idea particularly because of the additional letters beside the runes. On a separate note, Osmond added, "As for his equipments, I will ask our new earth mage professor, Mrs. Chevreuse, to aid you on your research tomorrow and please keep this discussion a secret between us. I do not wish anyone to learn of this yet."_

_Colbert nodded and left the headmaster office. He decided to study a bit more about the ancient book of runes and return to the infirmary/lab._

-Flashback End-

Colbert finally arrived at the student dorm. Because of his conversations with old Osmond, Colbert had to reduce the number of questions he would like to ask. As Colbert walked along the corridors of the student dorm, he started to hear gossips about Louise's recent outburst.

"Who was that that Louise just dragged into her room?"

"Yeah, he was kind of cute, heehee."

"True, but Louise was in a bad mood. Oh the poor guy."

Colbert turned the corner and saw two of his top students: Kirche Zerbst and Tabitha. They too seemed to be talking about Louise and her familiar, and Colbert decided to listen in.

"Hmm, I didn't know Louise had a boyfriend. Damn, he was pretty too." Kirche was the taller girl with flaming red hair. She was currently talking her friend, Tabitha who had short blue hair.

"No, that was Louise's familiar," Tabitha answered quietly; her face was emotionless as usual as she hold a curved staff in one hand and a small book in another.

"No way, her familiar was a commoner and he was a mess," Kirche expressed her doubt and folded her arms while glancing at her friend.

Tabitha shook her head, her eyes never leaving her book, and explained, "Remember that long blond hair and black clothes? That was Louise's familiar."

"Wait, I thought his clothes were destroyed," Kirche pointed out and looked at her friend directly.

"Same black clothes. Same unique style," Tabitha answered coolly, still reading her book.

"Hmmm, interesting..." Kirche muttered. She appeared to be deep in thought, plotting something.

'_So, her familiar had really waked up,'_ Colbert noted to himself. Colbert passed the two girls and hurried to Louise's room. When he arrived, he knocked and said, "Miss Vallière's, this is Professor Colbert. Are you there? May I come in?"

* * *

AN: I don't really like this chapter. It's a little too serious and nothing much to laugh about but it is plot. Louise and Zero's interaction seems a little forced. However, I don't know how to improve it either so…

Anyway, the main thing here was to show the shaky start between Zero and Louise. Unlike Saito, however, Zero is not going to simply run away but it was part of FoZ and a chance to harass Louise (mentally) so it was made this way instead. Running away will lead to locks and chains thus it happened. However, due to my skill, it was done rather awkward I must admit. Oh well. As for Colbert's part, I was just following the plot. Again, you may take this as a frame work and write your own if you think it is not good enough. I will appreciate if you do.

Anyway next chapter will be a lot 'happier'...

Review if you wanted to.

Random things and answers to reviewers (or my ranting so please, just ignore me):

Why did Zero pick locks instead of breaking it? Well, the main reason was I don't want Louise to know of his inhuman strength yet. Thus a cheap excuse was employed instead.

As a reference, Zero's skill of materialize or dematerializing his armor came from 'Dimension Travel', a MM crossover. It's a good fic but not great, and it's very likely never going to be finish. Much like this one as I have no ending for it and who knows when I will be giving up…

Adel Mortescryche: Why, thank you. I really liked your word: indulgent. It's hilarious. I wonder if I could make something out of it. Can't think of any right now, but… hmmm…induullggennt.

ManaZero: X indeed. Although I was really looking forward to see if anyone from any other series would do. Currently thought, I can't think of many outside the ones I listed. As for techno transfer of any kind: If it was Saito, X, you or me, then yes. But when it came to Zero, then the answer is probably no. Reason is simple: because he is Zero; he just experienced what horrible things one madman could do with technologies... Unlike X who is generally optimistic, Saito who is naive, you or me who probably cannot survive without technologies, Zero is generally pessimistic and very paranoid. Walking the path of modernization had a lot of risks and I am not taking about sissy stuffs like global warming. I mean, look at us. We had 2 world wars and nukes today are still pointed at each other ready to be deployed at a moments notice. Look at Zero's world. It's dying. So yeah, I don't see Zero being willingly give them a helping hand and led them down that path. On a positive note, he won't stop them either. Ultimately, if technologies were to be introduced by him, chances are that they will be simple hand-craned technologies. Material science will probably do as well but engine designs will be unlikely.

Dis Lexic: Zero will not be wearing armor for the most part. After all, he's a civilian now. Armors just don't fit the story narrative especially his armor (when needed, he will have 'em). I hope that answers your question. Don't worry, Zero will be a badass. That won't change.

jetslinger333: The Guardians? Well, if I get far enough, sure. One of them, at least, will come and harass Zero. But, that will be farrr into the future like end of second season. I am barely halfway done with episode 3 of first season...

pltrgst: Ooh, you are back and thus a proper reply. Zero ooc? Well… Congratulation, you are correct. He does seem more happy than we remember… But then the Zero here is from the Zero series, so he's nowhere near as doom and gloom as he was in the later part of the X series. Although I didn't expect someone would call me out on it so early before my later chapters - which would be even more 'happy' and yes, I am well aware of the ooc problem - but I will use the same cheap excuse as 'Blade of Void' and that is: we never truly know what Zero is like during peaceful times, being a civilian and all. Therefore, I take this opportunity to explore and push around the boundary a little. There is a reason why I say he is like Kakashi. The ninja had two faces: the dead serious 'I-am-not-going-to-let-my-teammates-die' face (Zero's cannon face) and the nonchalant 'walk-straight-into-Naruto's-crude-trap-and-thinks-nothing-of-it' face (Zero's ooc-ness you see here; he will use this face most of the time here as the setting _is_ peaceful so…).

KH-Hardcorefan4483: Zero being too human? Well, those who underestimated Zero's humanity have clearly not look close enough...

However, one could not truly explain Zero's human nature without going through the X series, and I don't feel like giving out a lecture here (and how it could potentially put X's humanity to shame when compared side by side). My question to anyone reading this is: Do you _really_ want me to give out such lecture?

Anyway, trust me; I have nothing against X (He is just too plain when compared with Zero; blame Capcom). Don't believe me? How about we play a little game here? Have you heard of the 7 deadly sin (Pride, Wrath, Lust, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, and Sloth) and how it was often used to tie in with our humanity? Well…

Challenge: Try and associate X and Zero with the 7 deadly sins. Compare them and see what you got. I will post my view on this the next time I update. In the meanwhile, if you wish to take up the challenge _and_ post it onto your review, short answers are fine. But in the case where you wanted to be more 'expressive', please do not give me ridiculous answers like: 'Because Dr. Light say so'. Seriously, you will only be embarrassing yourself...

Well then, that's about it; see you next time…


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